Content types

Article

Nature Communications publishes original research in one format, Articles, which may range in length from short communications through to more in-depth studies. Regardless of the length, an Article is a novel and important research study of high quality and of interest to that specific research community.

Registered Report

A Registered Report is a form of empirical article in which the methods and proposed analyses are pre-registered, reviewed and accepted for publication prior to data collection. This format is designed to minimize publication bias and research bias in hypothesis-driven research, while also allowing the flexibility to conduct exploratory (unregistered) analyses and report serendipitous findings.

Commissioned content

Nature Communications' editors invite specialists in a field to write three different types of content, Reviews, Perspective and Comment.

Matters Arising

Exceptionally interesting and timely scientific comments and clarifications on original research papers published in Nature Communications may be submitted as Matters Arising.